this and that!

Suitcases unpacked, laundry done! Friends arrived, a yummy meal, great fellowship, 4 wheeler rides, talks, and talks, giggles, a movie, soap making demonstration by Bethany Morris, yummy left overs, apples cooked with cinanmon with toffee flavored Stevia, goody-byes..... till next time!!!

The guys are in Bartlesville Oklahoma this week. Can you believe they are caught up in Ada and are now waiting on the contractors to do more concrete??? Thank the Lord for continued work in the midst of the Ada job!!

I can not express enough how the scriptures are and have been my anchor in these last 3 years. Its just different now when I read them, I can not wait each morning to "read" and hear from the Lord of heaven, the place where Joel dwells. There is a sense of anticipation each morning as I read. I view the scriptures through my journey, through grief. I am coming to more of an awareness/realization that trials are certainly for higher purposes than we might can "see" here, but until we "see" in eternity there is a "meanwhile" for the trial here on earth. I read another verse that confirmed that truth. Luke 7:21-22, and in the same hour he cured many of their infirmities, and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way and tell John what things you have seen and heard...... The first verse there speaks of infirmities, plagues, evil spirits, blindness. That certainly describes what we face on our pilgrimage here. If you have not, you will! What comes first in those verses???? Answer: the trial. What comes next? Answer: the testimony. The second verse is the "meanwhile" of what we do until we "see" the whole picture in eternity. The testimony is not to necessarily "tell" all the why's because obviously I don't know. But its to tell what I have seen and heard in and through this trial. I have seen God in a way I've not seen him before, I have seen His faithfulness, his comfort and more than I can write here. I have heard ( in the scriptures) His soothing words, his cries to his own Father to let this cup pass, I have heard Jesus telling others in scripture that "suffering is given unto us." So its going my way telling about HIM and my motive should be so he can get the glory. As I have been meditating upon this verse the Lord showed me another thought, as I continue to meet so many new friends, they too have something to tell. But each testimony is what each person has seen and heard! You see, God providentially directs trials and by His grace if one can embrace His will, though hard at times, He wants us to "go our way and tell." I can tell what I have seen and heard in my trial of a toddler death, another mother can tell what she has seen and heard through the death of her husband and son, another can tell what they have seen and heard in their infirmity of back pain for many many years and now relief, another can tell what they have seen and heard of chronically ill child all of his/her childhood life. The list can go on, but as I meet folks it amazes me to think that the Lord is over each infirmity, plague, evil, blindness and how he desires that we glorify him by "going our way, tell, what we have seen and heard on our own personal journey. May we do it! For Him, for others, because when I "heard" at the very beginning of our journey of a mother that was literally going on with life after her sons death, it gave me hope! May we glorify God and give others hope as we testify and tell!!!

I think I am going to go to bed early tonight....thats major!!!!

Blessings........